Shanghai municipal government will renovate the water supply facilities in residences built before 2000 in the city's central area to ensure a higher quality of drinking water, Metro Express said today.

Water tanks equipped on the top of these buildings will be rebuilt and airproofed to avoid contamination, said Zhang Jiayi, the director of the authority, during a press conference yesterday.

PVC pipes, a more environmentally-friendly material, will replace the current iron pipes, which easily rust and pollute the water source, he said.

"After the renovation, local families will have a higher quality tap-water," said Zhang.

The renovation expense, which is expected to hit 4.5 billion yuan (US$562.50 million), will be covered jointly by property management funds, the government and some tap-water companies, said the report.

All the renovations are scheduled to finish before 2010, it said.

The municipal government will also implement specific measures to raise water fees to encourage water conservation, and it said this fee increase will have little impact on most residential users, Oriental Morning Post said today.

"Currently, each family's spends about 0.57 percent of its yearly disposable income on water. The new price will raise the proportion to around 0.70 percent," said Zhang.

The Shanghai Water Authority is going to release a detailed schedule on the increase by end of the year, said the report. It will organize a public hearing with water officials to explain the plan and seeks to win the support of consumer representatives before the price rises come into effect.

The expected rate change is part of the municipality's efforts to reform its water pricing system, which will introduce volumetric pricing for residential users, Zhang said.

Volumetric pricing is a tiered pricing system used in Tokyo and 12 Chinese cities including Nanjing and Shenzhen. It charges heavy water users higher fees compared to light users, which encourages conservation.

According to the municipal government's plan, the new pricing system will impose three different rates on a family's annual consumption -- below 180 cubic meters, between 180 and 300 cubic meters and above 300 cubic meters.

About 80 percent of homes use less than 15 cubic meters per day, according to the Shanghai Water Authority.

For heavy industrial users, such as beverage firms, car-washing companies and sauna houses, the price of water may double, sources said yesterday.

"Most of the money raised in the price hike will go towards financing the construction of the municipality's third water source -- Qingcaosha area at the mouth of the Yangtze River - rather than cover the increasing cost of tap-water treatment," said Zhang.

(Shanghai Daily August 3, 2006)